Once Upon a Time
by Celestialdome
Summary: Previously "I Won't Go Home Without You": She finaly has her own "Once upon a time", and dang it, she's going to use it well. So she sends him up, to find the one. And so he sits there for three years, finaly having given up hope.
1. Exposition: Live and Let Die

Once upon a time, that's how they always start; it's a new beginning, a chance to live again, though someone else's shoes. Oh how she wished to have her own "once upon a time". She was so tired of walking. The desert sun beat down on her, and thoroughly dried the inside of her mouth. Bitter tears streaked down her face, the saltiness only strengthening her thirst.

"_Oh child of the wilderness, come, let me make it feel better, I can dry your tears,_" a voice called to her, she wasn't sure who it was, death, or the nagging sharp rocks under her bare feet. She wasn't sure which one she wanted it to be.

"_You run so long, and so far, rest for a little while, child. Let me protect you,_" it whispered again. It was nether male or female. She fell to her knees, clutching at her sides, she hurt all over. She had nothing but at tattered changing shift and her own caked crimson blood covering her. Her dark hair matted against her face, her full lips split in several places, and her eye lids drooping with fatigue, covering her glass-like eyes.

"_That's it dear girl, let me erase the pain, the memories, the guilt,_" it soothed and calmed her. Its presence flooding over her, making her numb. She lightly closed her eyes, giving into the calmness, letting the newly formed walls around her make her one of them.

"_You are now mine, you are now Labyrinth._"

The world went black.

* * *

Hello, yet again another Labyrinth Fan Fiction. This has nothing to do with my current one, just a little thing that popped in my head. This chapter is purposely short. It just gives a little info, for further things to come. I will say that this is based off of the music video for "Underground" by David Bowie.

Disclaimer: As much as I wish I do, I don't own anything.

Um… oh, ya, please review. Even though I know where I want to go with this one, I'm still open to input from the audience. :)


	2. Lonely Days

Most people, Fae or otherwise, had always thought that the Labyrinth had a ruler. It was almost incomprehensible to imagine the Goblin Kingdom with out its infamous king. Yet if one layers the truth with a multitude of gossamer thin layers of magic, one can create the illusion (which, ironically, magic, real magic, is just and illusion that one believes in with one's heart) of always having a ruler. But if one was to find their way through the tightly bundled, bold-faced lie, an Underground-wide war could break out. While, technically, she controlled the many walls that sprawled across the county, the fact that she couldn't leave the confines of the jail-like bricks and hedges would make foreign issues rather difficult.

Hoggle traced the intricate patterns in the rock. The past fifteen years had been sent in traveling the various Underground lands, trying to find the one who could be able to rein in the raw magic contained in the Labyrinth. Sadly, it was becoming a, oh what did those Abovegrounders say, oh yes, a "Cinderella story". So many of those who could possibly have been excellent rulers just didn't seem to fit into the fabric of the land. This one was too lenient, the other too strict. One had been overly pacifict, another a war-monger and power hungry. He was too practical, she too flighty. "_**Have patience my dear Hoggle, he will come,**_" Labyrinth reassured him. Hoggle just let out a heavy sigh. "_**Maybe we must widen our search, and go above,**_" She mused.

"G-G-Go aboveground?" he gulped. In the back of his mind, he could hear her giggle slightly.

"_**Now, now, certainly **_**my**_** Hoggle isn't afraid to go up to the realm of the humans? Certainly not my Hoggle!**_" She teased. Hoggle puffed up his chest, oh how he hated that she could play on his emotions like that.

"I ain't afraid!" he hastily exclaimed, "I'm just a worried, that uh," he stumbled on his words a bit, "Whose gonna take care 'o ya? Someone could just storm in here, and, and." He didn't get any further, as an old woman rose from the dirt, she was just as old and wrinkled as she was, granted she was only the second thing Labyrinth had tried to make.

"_**She will. She's Annice, she's twice as hard headed as you are, and I doubt she'll let anyone attack,**_" Labyrinth was on the verge of insulting now, but if it got Hoggle to go Aboveground, it was well worth it. "_**Now, I do believe you are wasting time, Hoggle.**_" Hoggle was about to protest it, when he found himself in a dark alley between two corporate office buildings.

He had sat on this corner, disguised for the past three years. Hoping someone would see past his oversized blue hat and holed clothes to hear his story, maybe even agree to come with him. He had seen illusionist paintings replace the once, and still, popular repetitions of pictures in un-natural colors. He had seen newsboys exclaim the success of the various 'Apollo' missions. He had heard phrases like, "_Does anybody really know what time it is?_" and "_If you could read my mind love, what a tale my thoughts could tell,_" blasted by boom boxes too many times to count as kids strolled by to know every single word that came after. Fashions changed, war came and went, and he was starting to give up. He was never a patient man, but three long years of the late '60's where starting to take their toll. His head hang lower, almost admitting defeat, acknowledging the fact that he may never be able to go home again.

"Hey, you mind if I sit here?" a male voice asked. Hoggle didn't bother to look up, he just nodded. "Thanks." A young man laid his book bag next to him and upon contact with the concrete, several new floppy disks spilled out. The man never made a motion to pick them back up. "Man this Monday's dragging on _forever_!" he groaned.

"It's not long at all," Hoggle sighed, "'Name's Hoggle." He looked up at the boy, glad his hat still hid his features. The boy had unconventionally short hair for the time period, high cheek bones, and startling blue eyes, though one seemed more dilated, probably from a fight. His solid black button down was open to reveal a white undershirt, and he wore grey slacks. Everything about this man seemed to scream that he didn't belong here and he was waiting on someone to save him. Waiting, at least they had something in common.

He gave a quick raise of the eyebrows, as if to contemplate his name's unusualness, and then thought better of it, "Jareth," he responded, holding out his hand, "Nice to meet you." Hoggle took it in a brief shake. Jareth gave a questioning look to Hoggle's hand. Hoggle instantly retracted his hand.

"I was born with it," Hoggle sighed. Jareth nodded.

"Progeria?" he asked. Hoggle vigorously shook his head. Jareth seemed to contemplate for a while, "Granted if you had it, you'd probably be dead by now. Anyways, where are you from?"

"Underground," Hoggle absentmindedly replied.

"So ya lived in the subways, have ya?" Jareth gave a hearty laugh. "Say, just for fun, how 'bout you come to a little gig my friends and I are holding this evening?" He scribbled down something down on a scrap of notebook paper, and handed it to Hoggle, and started to search though is backpack , "Uh, just come to that address …and ….um …now where did I put that extra ticket? Ah 'ere it is, just present this, and enjoy!" he also handed Hoggle the rectangle of cardstock, "Now don't let any one tell 'ya that I'm not generous." The teen then gave him a large smile and sprung up to leave, his wide gait, giving him a comical look

Hoggle stood in one of the darker corners of the small club, _Underground,_ he thought, _how ironic_. It was tucked in behind the entrance to an underground railway station and was only distinguished by a small piece of maple nailed on top of the crude entrance with gothic lettering. He had dumped the blue hat get up in favor for an outfit he once saw in the window of a men's clothing store and a more humanoid figure, he still kept the tan skin color, but thought it might be better to do without the wart covered skin texture. It was easy really, he saw the look, imagined how it would feel to be that, and let his body mold itself to his bidding. And just as Jareth said, no one gave him any gruff. He just showed the ticket and found himself a seat. For a while he doubted what he was doing, but there was something about that charismatic boy.

**So, second chapter! WHOO HOO! *chuckles slightly* Sorry for the wait. Life sorta happened, so sorry about not updating…**

**Disclaimer: Nothing in life (but air) is free, so the fact that I don't have large amounts of money needed to buy the rights to Labyrinth nor any of the cultural references (such as songs), leaves me with out them. I don't own, please don't sue…**

**Reviews are ever appreciated!**


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